MOST POPULAR

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of the senators behind the bipartisan immigration deal that the president rejected last week, said Tuesday that someone on the White House staff “gave him really bad advice” ahead of that heated meeting on Thursday.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and senior adviser Stephen Miller reportedly brought in other members of Congress to push back against the proposed deal.

“I don’t think the president was well-served by his staff,” Graham told reporters Tuesday.

Here’s the doozy of a quote Graham gave reporters about the prospects for a government shutdown and immigration deal:

“How does it end? Does it end with the government shutting down? We should all be kicked out if that happens. Does it end with these 700,000 kids being thrown to the wolves? No. Does it end without any effort to secure the border? No. So it’s not going to end poorly. It’s going to end well. And let me tell you why it will: The public is demanding for us to get our act together up here. Eighty percent of the people would like to see these kids have a better life. Eighty percent of the people would like to begin to fix the broken immigration system. They’re going to demand we begin to do better. And what we need to do better is a reliable partner in the White House, somebody like the president who showed up Tuesday [at a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers]. We cannot do this with people in charge at the White House who have an irrational view of how to fix immigration.”

As editor in chief, Yuval Rosenberg oversees all aspects of The Fiscal Times' website and email newsletter. His writing has appeared in publications including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, CNNMoney.com, Fast Company, Fortune, Newsweek, Money and Time.